UND92,96

It's a little hard to get too excited about transfers, particularly somebody whose name isn't actually on the roster, since there have been a number of those guys who ultimately never played a down. One example was current Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith's son, who had stops at both NDSU and UND after having some legal problems at Arizona. I believe he practiced with UND for the entire 2000 season, but I don't know what became of him after that.

I'm actually pretty confident that UND will win all the remaining home games, with the possible exceptions of Mankato and UNO. But as stated before, the road may be a real adventure...

Believe me, I want to believe that the program is on the right track. But I was kind of shocked when listening to a post-game interview with one of the players after the Colorado-Pueblo game, I believe it was Ryp, and he said something to the effect that the team was a little over-confident going into the Bemidji game. How can that be after we lost to them last year, and considering all the struggles in recent years against teams not considered heavyweights by any means? UND is not in a position to be over-confident against anybody, and the coaching staff needs to make sure they remind these guys that they're not good enough to just show up and expect to win, particularly on the road. When they actually show up and want to play, they can sometimes beat good teams on the road, i.e. at USD and Northern St. last year. But far too often, we seem to just sleep-walk through road games against poorer teams and lose. I realize Bemidji brought in a bunch of jucos, some of whom I'm sure can play, but it's still essentially a brand new team, playing against a comparatively veteran team in UND. Plus, with presumably well under 10 scholies, if the jucos really are talented, how in the heck is Bemidji getting them?

I don't know, but the fact that Illinois is really, really bad may have had something to do with it. I have to assume he's a decent kid or Lennon would not have wanted him on the team.

Another local kid has gotten some recognition. Kenley Wahlin from Crookston was named all-state as a safety by www.minnesotapreps.com. I would think UND would be recruiting him as a wide receiver. He's 6'3" and about 180 pounds with decent speed. Mertens was named all-state at quarterback, not surprisingly.

It's a pretty sad commentary on the basketball program when we're legitimately concerned about losing to a 2-2, traditionally terrible, 4-scholarship program, in an empty gym, having to travel for all of a half hour. I'm really not a pessimist by nature, but that Bemidji loss has absolutely killed my enthusiasm for the season. I'll still go to all the games, but the excitement just isn't there since the team doesn't have any fire or emotion. No matter how loyal a fan someone is, you can really only take so many of these losses to programs with a fraction of the talent, scholarships and resources that UND has. Thank God for the women's program. Even though I expect this to be something of a down year by Roebuck's standards, they'll still probably win close to 25 games.

I think what happened is that all spectators who weren't UND students, children or senior citizens ($18 per ticket) counted as one spectator. Children and seniors ($11 per ticket) counted as 11/18ths of a spectator, and UND students ($5 per ticket) counted as 5/18ths of a spectator.

I guess I didn't know they were missing anybody. It seemed to me like Kearney would have struggled against a zone since all they seemed to do was go one-on-one on every possession. I know some coaches (Glas and Roebuck in particular) really hate to play zone, but it has its place. God knows the UND women will face it a lot this year with their wildly inconsistent outside shooting.

I too was very disappointed in yet another loss to Bemidji. It appears that this year's team will be talented enough to beat anyone on a given night, particularly at home, but will also likely lose a lot of road games. I'm afraid that there could be another really embarrassing loss on the horizon since we play at Crookston again pretty soon, and that usually seems to be an adventure despite the fact that UMC is never any good. Even though beating Kearney was a nice accomplishment, it seemed as though the Sioux tried very hard to blow that game after building a 17-18 point lead in the second half. Twice down the stretch UND failed to even get off a shot on key possessions, and there were a number of missed free throws.

Regarding Mertens, he's a 4.0 student so you would think that he would end up getting a full ride between a partial football scholarship and academic scholarship(s). My understanding is that that was more or less the situation with Rory Manke last year, although I could be wrong about that. Regarding Chappell, I would think he should be in line for some track scholarship money, even though I know there isn't a lot of track money at UND. Again, hopefully between football and track he'd be close to a full ride. I had thought that Mahmoud got some track scholarship money in addition to football so this would not be unprecedented.

Just think, if the regions consisted of the same conferences they used to, UND-Pitt St. likely would have happened two weeks ago in the region semi-finals. UNO would likely have made the playoffs as the 6 seed. Grand Valley St. likely makes it to at least the semi's, and quite possibly the championship game as nobody in the current northeast region would have beaten them, and I think they would have had a good chance of knocking off Valdosta. If you're in the MIAA or the PSAC, you probably love the new alignment. The best team from those conferences has a virtual guaranteed spot in the semi's every year. Unless TAMUK gets really good again, it's hard to imagine anybody but Pitt St. or NW Mo. St. ever winning the southwest region. In the northwest, it's going to be a dogfight every year among UND, UNO, St. Cloud St., possibly USD, Winona St., Grand Valley, Saginaw Valley, Northwood, Tech, etc. It will be interesting to see how long the current region make-up lasts considering the vastly different number of quality teams in the northwest and southeast compared to the northeast and southwest.

Yesterday's win marks the 5th time in 12 years that UND has advanced to at least the semi-finals. Obviously that's quite an accomplishment at any level and in any sport.

I have been to every game played at the Alerus, and can generally predict the crowd size within about 500. This is the second or third time that the actual size of the crowd was probably about 2000 more than the announced crowd. The other times being the UC-Davis game in 2001 and the NDSU game in 2003. I guarantee that there were more than 10,000 people there yesterday.

Pitt St. has a good offense, but their numbers are somewhat inflated due to the fact that most of the teams they play have poor defenses. Look at recent history, and how has the MIAA fared against the NCC in the playoffs? Not very well at all, including Pitt's losses at UND in 2001 and 2003. I think Pitt St. has to be favored, but only because they're at home. This will not be a blowout, and UND can definitely hold them in the 20's with a good defensive performance. The key is whether our offense can do some damage against a Pitt defense that obviously can be scored upon (given up over 70 points in two playoff games this year). If the Sioux can force some turnovers, this is a winnable game. Dale Lennon isn't 10-2 in the playoffs by accident.

This was in the Herald today:

Congrats to Nick Mertens on being named player of the year in Minnesota by the A.P., and for leading EGF to its first ever state title! I have no idea how realistic UND's chances are of landing this kid, but he's one of the best local high school football players I've seen in a long time.

That list could be added to shortly. Rumor has it Heinitz at Augie may be hanging it up. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Mussman were interested in that job.

It's the northwest against the southwest in the semi's, and since in the southwest it's the 1 vs. 2 seeds (Pitt St. hosting NW Mo. St.), it's a guarantee that whomever wins between Pitt St. and NW Mo. St. will host the semi's since they will be seeded higher than either UND or Grand Valley St.

UND adds another men's recruit: link. He was apparently an AAU teammate of Andy Wills with the Howard Pulley team. Between signing these two, and Bo Powell being one of the Pulley coaches, hopefully this pipeline can continue as some very good players go through that program.